FEATURED PROJECT: India 2022 - Fruit Trees To Fight Hunger

​

State/Province |   Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Odisha & West Bengal

​

Planting Location |   Farm and community lands in marginalised villages.

​

Start Date |   February 14, 2022

​

End Date |   November 30, 2022

​

Number of Trees |   1,500,000

​

Key Impact Areas

Biodiversity/Habitats

Climate Stability

Gender Equality

Soil Stability and Erosion Control

Indigenous Groups

Youth Engagement and Education

​​

Project Description/Objective

This project will plant and nurture 1.5 million fruit trees with smallholder farmers in marginalized communities across the states of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Odisha and West Bengal. These fruit trees will help participating farmers to create sustainable livelihoods and provide nutritious food to their families and community.

 

One Tree Planted has been supporting this project with our local partners, Sustainable Green Initiative, since 2017. Together, we have planted 3.5 million fruit trees across India - and counting.

 

In 2022, this initiative will be building a new large-scale nursery in Mirzapur, after building two smaller nurseries in Haryana in 2021. By building in-situ nurseries, we are able to reduce the need for sapling transportation (saving costs and carbon emissions), and improve the quality of the saplings as they are able to acclimatize to local conditions. These nurseries employ a local workforce consisting of widowed and elderly women, who face many inequalities in already marginalized communities.

 

In 2022, planting will be distributed approximately as follows:

SGI's Manuwas nursery in Haryana will support the planting of 100k trees each in the states of Haryana, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, and Rajasthan.

SGI's Kolkata nursery in West Bengal will support the planting of 100k fruit trees in Sundarbans, West Bengal, and 100k fruit trees in neighboring state of Odisha.

The new SGI nursery at Mirzapur will support the planting of 900K fruit trees in the Sonebhadra and Chitrakoot districts of Uttar Pradesh

 

This year, this initiative will also pilot a "plastic-free nursery" program, replacing plastic nursery bags with jute & paddy stalk to reduce tons of plastic waste. This will commence as a trial on a small portion of the trees in 2022, with the aim of rolling it out further in future years.

​

Ecological Benefits

These 1,500,000 fruit trees will help the small and marginal farmers increase family nutrition and income levels, while fighting pollution, conserving water and preventing soil erosion.

​

Community Benefits

In three years' time after planting, each fruit tree will help generate additional incomes and nutrition by an average of US$10.00 per tree per year, resulting in considerably reducing hunger, malnutrition and poverty in the villages and communities that these trees will be planted.

Employing local women in the nurseries will help improve gender equality and extend benefits to widowed women and the elderly.

​

Types of Trees

Citrus limon

Punica granatum

Psidium guajava

Carica papaya

Ribes uva-crispa

Limonia acidissima

Annona reticulata

Moringa oleifera

+ other locally-grown species